The Fountain Of My Youth

Just west of the Robin Hood Bridge is a fountain which quenched the thirst of my summer days. Built during the WPA era, it overlooked the creek. Although the water was turned off years ago, so now is the view. The weeds and assorted invasives growing are not a riparian buffer. Science says that a buffer has to be 25feet wide to be of any value. A reader described this thin strip of wild growth as neglect, masquerading as conservation. All it does is block both the view and access to the waterway. It denies our current citizens the beauty and experience for which the parks were designed. Although the Wildland's Conservancy would like you to believe that the Allentown Parks are there to be wildlands, in reality they were designed by landscape architects, to provide the citizens of Allentown with what Harry Trexler called serenity. He did also appreciate conservation, but for that he created the Trexler Game Preserve, north of Allentown. There are places in the parks which can accommodate the riparian buffer zones, without compromising the intended public experience of waterway view and access. Riparians could be created and maintained in the western side of Lehigh Parkway, between the pedestrian bridge and Bogerts Bridge. In Cedar Park, the riparian section could be in western side, between the last walking bridge and Cedar Crest Blvd. It's time that the parks were given back to the citizens of Allentown. They are not funded, or intended by our tax dollars and the Trexler Trust,  just to be a venue for the Wildland's Conservancy to harvest grants.  Let a child again giggle by the creek's edge. Let us get back our intended park experience.

reprinted from August of 2013

ADDENDUM: I have lobbied the park department to leave the creek accessible in a couple small areas in Cedar Park.

Lesson At Dieruff

A Dieruff High School social studies teacher would not have to take his class very far for a lesson in Allentown's history. Although never elected, East Side activist Dennis Pearson has been complaining for thirty years that the East Side always get short changed in Public Works. Such was the case in the mid 1930's, during the WPA work in Allentown. Roosevelt's New Deal program built the elaborate walls in the south side's Lehigh Parkway. Central Allentown received the magnificent Lawrence Street stairwell. The culturally elite of west Allentown received the Union Terrace Amphitheater, envisioned for Shakespeare. Pearson's east side got a few scattered steps to nowhere. The steps remained, and thirty years later Allentown built Dieruff High School. With expansions and renovations, some of the steps now adjoin the school. Flash ahead to the summers of 2009 and 2010.




I lobbied Allentown City Council members to appropriate some of the $millions of dollars in Cedar Park plans to begin preserving the irreplaceable WPA structures, starting to crumble throughout our park system. East Side elected councilman, Michael D'Amore, assured me that he only signed off on the Administrations plan, with the stipulation that the steps in Irving Park-Dieruff area would be restored at the same time. The work in Cedar Park was completed last year, including $millions of dollars with of recreation equipment from catalogs. The deterioration of the steps around Dieruff continues. Now there's a lesson in government!
photos courtesy of Mark Thomas

reprinted from September of 2011

ADDENDUM: Flash ahead again four more years, and the steps at Irving Park are now finally being repaired, using a $20,000 grant from the Trexler Trust. Although the grant was secured through Friends Of The Parks, it's actually also the fruit of my labor. That organization's director learned of the plight of the WPA structures through meetings I conducted at the Allentown Library in 2011. I then took her on a WPA tour of the parks, and we have been collaborating on the WPA ever since.

At the city meeting last week, I asked the councilmen to compare $20,000  from an outside source, to repair something as tangible as the stone structures, to the $1.4 million of city money, to buy land that we didn't need, nor are using.  I explained that the consequence of the WPA neglect was that our largest park, Lehigh Parkway, is now virtually inaccessible.  Considering that I had approached both previous park directors about the WPA, with no success, I asked council to appoint me special WPA envoy, and to instruct the new director to consider my suggestions in both her plans and budget.

Council didn't respond to my request. I think that maybe they were preoccupied with the mob behind me, the ones with the pitchforks and torches.  As things simmer down from news of  the FBI investigation, and council has to deal with the business at hand,  perhaps they will reconsider my offer.

above reprinted from August of 2015

UPDATE JULY 15, 2021: Since this was written seven years ago, Mayor Ed is in the pokey. Although convicted for receiving payoffs on about ten contracts, I believe that the FBI actually had a much larger menu of corruption from which to choose 

Because of my blunt outspokenness,  city council never acknowledged my work with the parks and WPA structures.  However, the former director of Friends Of The Parks, Karen El-Chaar, is now park director, and she does have an appreciation of the WPA.  The problem now is budgetary,  appropriating funds for repairs. Several structures remain in peril...I will continue to speak out.

The Morning Call's Mistake

Mike Miorelli, editor of the Morning Call, had a recent piece where he touted the paper's Town Square, as a place where the community can be heard. He did add the following caveat.

Some of you haven’t always been happy when submissions were rejected for various reasons. Some may have been too promotional. Some alleged things that were not verified by our reporting.

"Not verified by our reporting" is quite a story in itself. If something was reported, there would be little need for a member of the public to write in. But more importantly, just because their reporters couldn't verify it, doesn't mean that it isn't true. I have a long standing spat with the paper about Wehr's Dam. When their reporter asked public officials if they if did anything behind the scenes, the officials replied "certainly not." Public officials not admitting to their shenanigans is par for the course. One would think that a paper which was oblivious to a corrupt mayor for over a decade, might realize that public officials don't admit and confess to every reporter's question. 

The paper could simply add a disclaimer that the opinion expressed is that of the writer, and not theirs. They could say that they have not verified the information in the letter. In truth, their editorial page is not a town square, but an echo chamber. It echoes their opinion, or the opinion of their pre-approved go to submitters.

Brightline Of Florida

While Biden and the new administration are promoting their $Trillion dollar infrastructure program,  and an improved Amtrak would supposedly be a benefit,  the Republic Of Florida has its own program, with no cost to the taxpayers.

The privately owned high speed train has been operating since 2018 between Miami and West Palm Beach.  Richard Branson, who spent this past weekend near outer space, envisioned a high speed Virgin Train brand between Orlando and Miami. While Virgin is no longer involved with the project,  the extension from West Palm Beach to Orlando is being built.  The Brightline extension requires seventeen new bridges and 170 miles of track. The new track is next to the old existing single track, now in use for freight.

The project is not without controversy. While very few towns would have a station or benefit from the high speed line, the train will be speeding through them.  A concern is the danger imposed by such high speed at all the crossings.

The new bridges are a massive undertaking. Shown above is the bridge construction over the Crane Creek in the Space Coast area.  A temporary bridge was constructed to hold the massive equipment necessary to build the new bridge.

Florida was developed a century ago by Henry Flagler and his train company. Private enterprise does still exist.

Crimes By The Wildlands Conservancy

photo by Tami Quigley

The top photo shows the Robin Hood Bridge, before the Wildlands Conservancy demolished the little Robin Hood Dam, just downstream beyond the bridge. The dam was only about 10 inches high, and was built as a visual effect to accompany the bridge in 1941. It was the last WPA project in Allentown, and considered the final touch for Lehigh Parkway. Several years ago, the Wildlands told the Allentown Park Director and City Council that it wanted to demolish the dam. The only thing that stood between their bulldozer and the dam was yours truly. I managed to hold up the demolition for a couple weeks, during which time I tried to educate city council about the park, but to no avail. If demolishing the dam wasn't bad enough, The Wildlands Conservancy piled the broken dam rubble around the stone bridge piers, as seen in the bottom photo. I'm sad to report that the situation is now even worse. All that rubble collected silt, and now weeds and brush is growing around the stone bridge piers. I suppose the Wildlands Conservancy considers it an extension of its riparian buffers.

The Wildlands Conservancy is now going to demolish Wehr's Dam at Covered Bridge Park in South Whitehall. The township commissioners are cooperating, by having a grossly inflated price associated with repairing the dam, to justify a disingenuous referendum. Sadly, by next spring I will be showing you before and after pictures of that crime.

top photo by Tami Quigley

above reprinted from August 2016

UPDATE: To everyone's surprise, especially the Wildlands Conservancy and the South Whitehall Commissioners, the referendum to save the dam was approved by the voters in November of 2016. The Wildlands Conservancy and the South Whitehall Commissioners are now conspiring to have the dam demolished anyway, by exaggerating its problems with the Pa. DEP...I have documented the communication between the Wildlands, State and township,  As for Lehigh Parkway, the Wildlands Conservancy should be made to remove the former dam rubble that is despoiling the vista of the Robin Hood Bridge piers.  I have been trying to interest the Morning Call about the voter suppression in regard to the Wehr's Dam referendum.  In today's paper there is an article about the danger high hazard rated dams pose to residents downstream.  I hope the paper's article today is a coincidence, and not intended to serve the Wildlands conspiracy about Wehr's Dam.  BTW,  Wehr's Dam is rated low hazard, because it poses no danger to residents.

reprinted from November of 2019 and before

Crime And Punishment For Allentown

Readers of this blog, and the facebook group Allentown Chronicles that I moderate, know that I shy away from crime reports. Quality of life in Allentown certainly hasn't improved in the last decade, despite all the new construction on Hamilton Street. 

The map shown above was produced by WFMZ to illustrate a spat of stabbings and shootings the other night in center city.  The recent May primary election featured several candidates who advocated defunding the police, in favor of more assets going to social agency intervention.

At the western end of the map is the West Park neighborhood, where I lived for over a decade. As a resident I would take more comfort in more police, not more social workers.  

While the defunders made the most noise during the primary campaign, fortunately, they didn't get the most votes. Come 2022, I hope that the new mayor understands that he has a mandate to increase the police presence.

The Dam Story

I believe that Wehr's Dam will be preserved, but it may cost much more than was needed. Here's how it came to pass.

By 2014, the Wildlands Conservancy was well entrenched in South Whitehall Township. The son of their chief financial officer was director of parks.  They had an ally as the president of the commissioners. The Wildlands helped design the new park master plan for Covered Bridge Park, and took the liberty of showing Wehr's Dam no longer there. The Wildlands approached the commissioners with a proposal to demolish the dam at no cost to the township.  Yours truly was in attendance, and outraged by the disregard of both history and beauty.  The dam has been a destination for generations, and it is the only location where you can see water go over a dam and under a covered bridge in one place.  The commissioners agreed to defer their decision to allow for public notice and input. An article on the meeting generated interest by other dam defenders, including descendants of the Wehr family.

The state had recently inspected the dam, and found it to be in good condition.  They identified a small crack on one face that needed to be addressed, and some bank erosion downstream that also needed attention. It is rated a low hazard dam because a failure would have no consequence or risk to people or private property.  It was originally overbuilt as a promo for the local fledging cement industry. It is a massive concrete wedge sitting on a massive concrete platform.

The Wildands commissioned a study which was intended to show how expensive repairing the dam would be.  Although the water at the foot of the dam is only a few inches deep, they even hired a scuba driver.  They presented the commissioners a report showing that it would cost close to a million dollars to restore the dam. Never mind that there was no necessity or reason to restore a low hazard scenic dam to as new condition.  While the commissioners were actually on board with demolishing the dam, by now there were political considerations. Thousands of people had rallied in defense of the dam, and over a hundred were now attending the meetings. The commissioners decided to commission their own study, again designed to encourage demolition. The new study put the cost of restoration at 600K, again unnecessarily rebuilding a portion of the low hazard dam. When the commissioners put the issue to voter referendum, they never expected the voters to approve the cost and possible tax increase. It was their plan that the voters would decide to do away with the dam, at no political consequence to themselves.

The Wildlands Conservancy started undermining the dam by sending their engineering reports to Harrisburg, which is anti-dam anyway. South Whitehall should have never condoned the Wildlands interfering with the legal status of township property.  But rather than reprimand the Wildlands,  the park director, now public works director of the township, awarded them the contract to oversee the Greenway Project in the park. 

It took me five years and three editors at the Morning Call to get a story about the dam. Although I provided the reporter with all the information, they chose to take all the inflated costs at face value. If it is naive on their part, or covering up for the Wildlands and establishment,  I do not know. There will be a new board of commissioners starting in 2022...Hopefully they will defend the dam with Harrisburg, and save the taxpayers some unnecessary expense preserving our history.

pictured above in 2014, I'm starting the fight to save our dam

Morning Call Whitewashes Wehr's Dam

The reporter in yesterday's Morning Call article about Wehr's Dam went out of her way not to mention me. I say this because for five years I have been urging the paper to write about the status of the dam's repair.  After a heated discussion with the current editor this past February, he finally assigned a reporter to the topic, one year after agreeing to do so in February of 2020.  Although the reporter did use some material that I supplied her with, and she did interview a former commissioner I recommended,  for an advocate in her article she used someone not involved with the issue since 2016.  I suspect that the reluctance against mentioning me came from her boss's attitude about me and other bloggers. 

Worse than my slighted ego is the whitewashing of what has transpired, and the chicanery of the Wildlands Conservancy.  The reporter quotes a Wildlands director saying... 

“We don’t go pushing it if it’s not wanted,” she said. “It’s really the township’s call."

Actually, they did go pushing, and they pushed very hard.  The Wildlands communicated with the state back channel attacking the structural integrity of the dam.  The reporter knows this, because I supplied her with copies of the letters.

The only reason the township is beginning the repair permit procedure is because one of the main Wildlands supporters, Tori Morgan, lost the primary election.  However,  the director of public works in the township, Randy Cope, continues to stall, because he is the son of a former Wildlands director and joined at the hip with them.

Had the Wildlands Conservancy not muddied the waters with the state, the dam repair would have cost 50K and been done five years ago.  It will now cost 700k and take years.

photocredit:Gregg Obst

ADDENDUM: In the last state inspection all the state wanted was one small crack filled in, and the one bank downstream fixed. The township allowed the Wildlands Conservancy to go back-channel with the state DEP, and raise numerous superfluous issues in an attempt to fiscally condemn the dam. We will now have a dam way over-repaired, costing the taxpayer 10 times more than necessary. Hopefully the new commissioners will reconsider the township's relationship with the Wildlands Conservancy.

The Vegetable Gardens Of Allentown

When Charles M. Ritter passed away in 1964, his obituary headlined that he was a star athlete at Allentown High School when graduating in 1910. He spent most of his working career at Kuhns and Shankweiler, a major men's clothing emporium at 7th and Hamilton. In 1948 he was president of the Kiwanis Club.  During that era,  many men belonged to one service club or another.

He and his wife Anne lived near 12th and Linden, where his row house yard was dominated by a summer vegetable garden.  They had an outside cellar entrance,  basement stove and sink to facilitate canning vegetables.  

Their long, old harvest table shown above probably came from his rural childhood home in Orefield.  By summer's end it was covered with mason jars filled with vegetables, like those grown in hundreds of other backyard gardens across Allentown.

Morning Call Malarkey

Mike Miorelli published an editorial on Sunday about the charges against Ce-Ce Gerlach. He defended the paper not publishing the allegations against her before the election...  But there was never a political consideration given to not publishing that story. We would have done the same for any politician, or official for that matter, of either party.

Mr. Miorelli, not quite for any politician. You certainly didn't extend that courtesy to Emma Tropiano, when you assigned a reporter to ambush her at the Women's Club debate.

You certainly didn't extend that courtesy to me in 2005,  when your daily debate promo only showed pictures of two candidates, when there were three on the ballot. In addition to excluding me from the mayoral debate, you never ran a profile on me, or published my picture.

You certainly didn't hesitate to write an explosive article about Marty Northstein, right before the congressional election.

Mike Miorelli can claim that the paper treats everybody fairly, but its victims know better.  

UPDATE JULY 6: Blogger Bernie O'Hare reacts to Miorelli's explanation.

A Fixture of Hamilton Street's Past

The store cabinet shown above began its commercial life at Edwin H.Young's,  one of Allentown's first drug stores, located at 639 Hamilton Street. At some point in the mid 1930's Lloyd Buchman acquired the shelf and drawers for his book store at 920 Hamilton Street.  Aral Hollenbach acquired the business from Buchman's widow, Florence, and moved it to 1021 Hamilton.  After Hollenbach died, his widow Naomi continued operating the store, still called Buchman's, and stayed in business until the mid 1990's.

The drawer and shelf unit, with such a long Allentown history, is for sale by Alderfer Auction this coming Thursday.

Link to sale. 

Ce-Ce's Morning Call Merry-Go-Round

Just when I thought I was done writing about Ce-Ce Gerlach and The Morning Call, another doozy graces the paper... Paul Muschick, the columnist with whom I usually agree,  defends the embattled council woman. He thinks that she shouldn't resign, even citing that Pawlowski stayed on as mayor until forced out by his court conviction.  He argues that Ce-Ce hasn't been convicted yet, and is henceforth entitled to retain her council seat. I wish that columnist Paul was writing satire, but unfortunately he's serious.

Paul Muschick sets the Allentown governance bar pretty low when Pawlowski is the gold standard. Paul cites that you're innocent until proven guilty, but in Ce-Ce's case she has admitted dropping the boy off at the tent city and not reporting it, which is illegal for a social worker.

Ce-Ce championed for increased social worker response, financed by defunding the police, but ironically personified the weakness with that ill-conceived theory. 

The Morning Call has taken to printing exclusive reports, only visible to paying subscribers.  That  strategy eludes me as a business incentive.  In the case of this particular column by Muschick, perhaps paying customers shouldn't have to see it.

The Morning Call Massaging

The Morning Call has been massaging the local news over the decades... Yesterday's Ce-Ce Gerlach story is just one of the latest examples. When the paper gets caught in these awkward positions, they do damage control. Yesterday they put Gerlach's disclaimer in their headline... I have not committed any crimes.  The paper knows that it has already been established that she dropped the boy off at the tent city, and that as a mandated reporter she failed in her duty, and that is legally a crime.  Nevertheless, they printed her disclaimer in the headline as damage control, not for Gerlach, but for themselves.  Ce-Ce was one of their go to people, whom they have quoted dozens of times about affordable housing.

But exactly who is the Morning Call? The Morning Call for the last number of years is mostly Mike Miorelli. As the long time editor, and now as publisher, these omissions and decisions reflect his opinions.  The amount of verification necessary for a story depends on his attitude about the person or topic.  While I disagree with him, and him with me, on numerous topics,  I must admit he still puts out a good paper with ever decreasing facilities and staff.

AMENDMENT JULY1, 2021: A lot happened overnight at virtual 6th & Linden....The corner is still there, but the paper isn't. Emperor Miorelli has now given Gerlach the thumb down, and the new city beat reporters (Shortell and Hall) have started to dig her political grave.  I seldom now link to Morning Call stories because too many of my readers hit a paywall, and recently the paper has started exclusive articles, only visible to their subscribers.

Morning Call's Go To People

I have often complained about the Morning Call's go to people.  They ask the same people over and over for their opinion about certain topics....Tony Iannelli about business, Alan Jennings about the poor, Chris Borick about politics and Ce-Ce Gerlach about the NIZ and affordable housing.

While Ce-Ce came in fourth in the May 18th mayoral primary,  many had considered her the person to beat. While the separate candidate election treatment was fair enough,  Ce-Ce's name had long become a regular in the paper.

When the news broke today about Ce-Ce being charged by District Attorney Jim Martin for her less than responsible action with a runaway youth,  frankly, I suspected that the paper had purposefully sat on the story until after the election.  However, I've been assured by the reporter that although the allegations were widely known on facebook and O'Hare's Ramblings,  they could not be confirmed independently by the paper.

I do believe the reporter that he couldn't go with a story that couldn't be confirmed.  Unrelated to the Ce-Ce story, there will now be a new reporter for the city (Allentown) beat, because the current one is coincidentally taking a management offered buyout.*  He hadn't been on the job long enough to have what I would consider institutional knowledge of the city or players. The same was true for his predecessors...it has been at least a decade since anyone had the beat long enough to know the back stories.  That problem with the paper only gets worse.

* The city beat reporter's departure actually occurred this past Friday, but he is credited as a contributor to today's MC story.

UPDATE 5:25 PM:  The Morning Call story has been amended with quotes from both Gerlach and her attorney, but with no indication of such amendment.  Ironically, Gerlach's attorney calls the charges politically motivated.  From my viewpoint,  the editor not insisting on the story before the election, despite it breaking on social media in early May, was politically motivated. 

Blogger LVCI also reports on the Gerlach case

UPDATE JUNE 30 1:58AM: In addition to the Morning Call updating the story, they also changed the headline to include Gerlach's denial of any criminal act. After using Gerlach as one of their go to people for so long, the charges must be awkward for the paper. Blogger Bernie O'Hare also notes the paper's shortcomings in regard to Gerlach in his post today.

The Fountain Pool Of My Youth

While I've been involved in many issues in Allentown over the years, defending the park system of my youth is the one I find the most rewarding.  It's not my personal memory lane I care about, but rather an iconic park system that was in itself a designation. 

I remember the picture postcard racks in the dime stores on Hamilton Street.  They were full of postcards of the Allentown parks,  including the rose garden, and along the different creeks. The card shown above is the former Fountain Park Pool, now closed for many years.  Although most of my swims took place at Cedar Beach Pool,  our gang would visit the other four pools when one of us could borrow the family car.

Although budget and staffing concerns have closed several of the pools, wanton destruction now ruins the remaining.  Cedar Beach had to close because of broken glass in the pool. The spray park at Bucky Boyle closed because of a contaminant dumped into the drain. 

We're now in an era when we need police in the schools.  I suppose we'll soon need them at the park pools as well.

Around The Corner

Yesterday's post about the zoning hearing for Rite-Aid, out on North 7th Street, showed a classic 1950 black and white photograph of Hamilton Street. Today, we go right around the corner, on South 7th Street. Being the oldest blogger in the valley, and being an aficionado of old photographs, you will be submitted to these excursions. Before we begin, a few notes about yesterday's image. Notice that there are many more shoppers on the north side of Hamilton, than the south. This phenomenon always existed. Were the better stores on the north side? Real estate prices and rents were always higher on the Hess's side. OK, lets go around the corner. The Suburban Line Bus is getting ready to head west, the county poor home being the last stop; Today it is known as Cedarbrook. The Lehigh Valley Transit Company had their main stop a block west, on S. 8th Street. The bus is parked in front of the YMCA, which housed a market at street level. If the photograph was extended on the right side, you would see the monument. Across Hamilton Street is Whelan Drug Store, that location currently occupied by a bank. The billboard above, then advertising local Neuweiler Beer, was a prime sign location. Behind the drug store stands the Dime Bank, which will remain as part of the new transformational Arena Complex. Glad you could join me, now get off the bus, and back into 2011.

reprinted from November of 2011

Morning Call Columns Part 2

Yesterday, I took chocolate cake recipe columnist Bill White to task for a little bark with no bite.  I think much more of Paul Muschick, but even he seems to walk the Morning Call Line, which is always to go gentle on the establishment and its shakers.  Muschick rightfully questioned the concept of rail from Lehigh Valley to New York City.... It would be an enormous cost for not that many riders.  He even mentioned that the money could be better spent on local roads.

What Muschick didn't mention was the Route 22 bunnyhop.  The clogged highway was finally set to be widened,  when Pat Browne had the funds diverted to build an additional interchange west of Allentown, which would enhance Jaindl and other developers' warehouse portfolios. Although there was a pretense that Rt. 78 is an interstate, and that is the federal funding priority, local taxpayers had already paid for the engineering for 22's widening.

Drive over Rt. 22 on the Cedar Crest Blvd. overpass any afternoon at 4:30, and see the highway bumper to bumper. 

Adorable Columns In The Morning Call

Mike Schlossberg's opinion piece in the Morning Call was rich in irony. He was rallying against House Bill 1300, which he called a vile attempt to undercut our democracy. Mike felt that the bill would make voting less convenient, something that he knows about and cherishes. Mike likes voting to be easy, even when he's casting a vote for someone else.

In 2015, Mike was caught voting for a representative who was not in attendance at the state house. Furthermore, it was determined that he had no permission from the missing representative to do so, and that the vote cast didn't even reflect that representative's preference. This being Pennsylvania, Scholossberg's punishment was a silent reprimand. 

Adding to my amusement was a column by Bill White. In it Bill claims that he always advocated for term limits. I don't recall Bill ever saying that Mike has been there too long... Bill never gets that specific.

Mike went directly from college to the state house, and into the Morning Call's good graces.

Allentown's Vanishing History

Years ago a reader sent me the above image.  It looks down the hill from 7th and Hamilton, north, toward Linden Street. He had been attempting to locate the old Lafayette Radio store on 7th street, because of a pleasant memory from his childhood. By my day the store had moved onto the southern side of the 700 block of Hamilton Street. History is quickly succumbing to the wreaking ball in Allentown. All the buildings shown above, on the unit block of 7th Street, have been knocked down for the arena and Reilly's Strata complexes.  When Salomon Jewelry departed,  Tucker Yarn remained one of Hamilton Street's last remaining businesses from the glory days.

Phil and Rose Tucker opened their first yarn store on N. 7th St. in 1949. That first store can be seen on the left side of the above photo. The Tucker Yarn Company had been at its current location at 950 Hamilton Street for over 50 years. For knitting enthusiasts the endless inventory was legendary. Phil told me years ago how even in May, traditionally a slow month for the industry, Hess's annual flower show kept Hamilton Street and his store busy. A busy Hamilton Street is a memory now, shared only by a couple of surviving merchants. Although many of Tucker's customers were elderly, the business was much more than a time capsule. His daughter Mae, nationally known in the trade, gave classes and operated a large mail order web site.

Tucker Yarn has closed.  In the near future you will see the building replaced by one more new office building.  This blogger will continue his downtown recons, but I will no longer be sitting in a familiar place with familiar faces.

The above image can be found in Doug Peters' Lehigh Valley Transit

reprinted from November of 2019

Two Ton Galento

In an era of tough men, Tony "Two Ton" Galento was a standout. Although he would never win a Mr. America contest, his left hook could knock down any man, including the legendary Joe Louis. Tony owned a bar in Orange, New Jersey, didn't train, drank beer and ate large meals before he fought. Between 1928 and 1944 he fought 110 times, knocking out 56 of his opponents.

He met the Baer brothers in back to back fights later in his career, losing both bouts, but not before knocking 6'7'' Buddy Baer down. The famous fight with Louis occurred at Yankee Stadium in June of 1939, before Galente beat Lou Nova in the infamous dirty fight. Tony was king of the world in the third round as Louis lay on the canvas, but he got up at the eight count, and knocked Galante out in the next round. Louis would later say that Tony Galante was one of the toughest men he ever fought.
post reprinted from May 30, 2010, bottom photo, after Lou Nova fight, added

Boxing's Giant Era

In California these days, everybody walks around with a yoga mat strapped to their back. That certainly wasn't the case in the 1930's, when heavyweight contender Lou Nova studied yoga. Nova was the World Amateur Heavyweight Champion and a proponent of clean living. He won his first twenty two fights as a professional. His promoters said he perfected the Cosmic Punch. Only 6'2", he fought in the era of giants. He handed giant Abe Simon his first defeat after thirteen victories, eleven by knockout. Nova knocked out 6'4'' Max Baer twice. The 1939 knockout is one second away, in the above photograph. Baer himself had won the championship by knocking out Primo Carnera, the Italian giant who was 6'6" and weighed 284 lbs. Baer lost the championship to the Cinderella Man, Jim Braddock. Joe Louis took the belt from Braddock and held it for twelve years, being arguably the best fighter in history. Clean living didn't serve Lou Nova so well with the notorious dirty fighter Two Ton Tony Galento. Galento almost gouged his eye out, putting him in the hospital for weeks. Nova got his shot with Louis on September 29, 1941, but fell in six. Nova would go on to act in movies and even was a write-in candidate for President of the United States. He dropped out of the campaign because his mother was afraid he would catch a cold shaking so many hands. She wasn't afraid of him being in the ring with some of the toughest men in the world.

reprinted from December of 2012

Images Of Allentown Past

Tillie's Bakery, on the narrow 900 block of Liberty Street, was actually a family factory outlet store. Behind the house, whose living room served as the store, facing an alley called Fountain Street, was Long's Bakery. Long's produced small plastic wrapped shoefly pies and breakfast cakes, which were distributed in local grocery stores throughout Allentown. Tillie Long would open the bakery store several hours each day, and the small selection of wrapped bake goods would quickly be snatched up by knowledgeable neighbors. Peter and Tillie operated the factory and bakery front for the better part of a century. Afterwards, the business was operated by their son, William. The bakery building on Fountain Street is now apartments.

reprinted from May of 2013

How You Were Cheated

At the end of 2000, despite the majority of neighbors in opposition, The West Park Historic District was enacted. The City Administration, City Council and The Morning Call all cooperated in ignoring the true sentiments of the property owners and the State guidelines to implement what they felt was in the public good. I mailed the below documents to the opposing property owners, and for a return address the envelope said How You Were Cheated. My intention is to show how we must guard and fight against this sort of assumption by our elected leaders. I mean no offense to my friends who were on the other side of this issue.
click on documents to enlarge

reprinted from February of 2008

J. Molovinsky, Part 3, Wenz Company

This past weekend there was an auction at the former Wenz Company monument factory in the 1900 block of Hamilton Street. This facility has played several parts in Allentown's history, besides having produced thousands of tombstones. Enormous blocks of granite still remain from when it was the last stop on the Quarry Barber railroad branch line. Sculptures remain from the Phil Berman era, when artists used the Wenz equipment for monumental art. lastly, there are hundreds and hundreds of old tombstones, which were replaced over the decades, in local cemeteries with replacement markers. As mentioned in Part 1 of this post series, part of an old tombstone led me to discover my great grandmother's grave on Fountain Hill. That sculpture was made at Wenz, and Jennie Molovinsky's original stone also lies at Wenz's.

My grandfather came to Allentown as a young man in 1893. After working and saving for a number of years, he brought his parents over from the Old Country. The former synagogue on 2nd. Street had just acquired their cemetery off Fullerton Avenue when his mother died. Jewish tradition dictated that a man was the first burial in a new cemetery, so she was buried in an old Jewish Cemetery, on Fountain Hill. Several years later her husband, my great grandfather, was killed while being robbed on Basin Street. He is buried on Fullerton Avenue.

reprinted from June of 2014

What The Morning Call Could Learn From Allentown

I chuckled the other day when I read Bill White's column about what developers could learn from Levittown.  White was referring to the planned neighborhood development in the early 1950's with its own school.  What he didn't realize was that south Allentown's Little Lehigh Manor, from the early 1940's, was one of first in the country complete with its own school. It was followed in a couple of years by Midway Manor on the east side.

Allentown and the Lehigh Valley led the way during post war era with its heavy industry, commerce and technology. More so, we had a locally owned paper familiar with both the history and local doings of the time. The publisher then was a founder and partner in Park & Shop, a cornerstone of the booming Hamilton Street in Allentown. 

The Morning Call changed from local ownership to national newspaper chains. Although only a few blocks from city hall, they were clueless about a mayor rigging contracts for over a decade. Whistle blowers such as myself were branded naysayers and blocked from the letters page. 

Now I still learn from the paper...There are good reporters covering local government and events. However, it is up to readers and local commentators like myself to point out patterns and possible abuses.... The Morning Call has no motivation to take on the establishment in any way.

photo shows Mayday at Parkway Elementary School, one of the first planned neighborhood schools in the country

Fairview Cemetery, An Allentown Dilemma

The condition of Fairview Cemetery has been in decline for decades.  It first caught my attention in 1997, when I began hunting for the grave of a young woman who died in 1918. 

By 1900, Fairview was Lehigh Valley's most prestigious cemetery.  It would become the final resting place of Allentown's most prominent citizens, including Harry Trexler, John Leh, Jack Mack and numerous others.  Despite my status as a dissident chronicler of local government and a critic of the local press,  my postings caught the attention of a previous editor at the Morning Call, whose own grandmother is buried at Fairview.  While the paper did a story on my efforts in 2008,  and I did manage to coordinate a meeting between management and some concerned citizens,  any benefit to the cemetery's condition was short lived.

Internet search engines have long arms. In the following years I would receive messages from various people upset about conditions at the cemetery.  A few years ago, Tyler Fatzinger became interested in the cemetery, and took it upon himself to start cleaning up certain areas. I suggested to Taylor that he start a facebook page, so that concerned citizens and distressed relatives might connect.  Once again the situation caught the paper's attention, and another story appeared in 2019.  Tyler Fatzinger was recently informed by the cemetery operator that he was trespassing, and must cease from his efforts to improve the cemetery.

Why would both the cemetery and city establishments reject help, and discourage shining a light on this situation? Orphan cemeteries are a problem across the country. An orphan cemetery is an old cemetery no longer affiliated with an active congregation or a funded organization.  These cemeteries are often large, with no concerned descendants or remaining funds.  While perpetual care may have been paid by family decades earlier,  those funds in current dollars are woefully short.

In Fairview's case, the current management operates a crematorium and also conducts new burials on the grounds. Funds from the previous management were supposedly not passed forward.  While the Trexler Trust maintains Harry Trexler's grave, and a few other plots are privately maintained,  there understandably is no desire to take responsibility for the entire sixty acre cemetery. The current operator provides minimal care to the cemetery,  with even less for those sections toward the back.  While the cemetery grass may only be cut twice a season,  that's still more care than a true "orphan cemetery" would receive.  Some of the new burials appear to be on old plots, owned by other families, but unused for many, many decades, and on former areas designated as pathways between those plots. There seems to be no regulatory oversight. Recently, both state senator Pat Browne and the Orloski Law firm have acted in behalf of the cemetery operator.

While family members may be exasperated by the neglect,  local government does not seem eager to adopt either the problem or the expense of Fairview Cemetery.

A Family Story

This post is unusually personal for this blog.  My grandfather came to Allentown from Russian Lithuania  in 1891.  In the next few years he was joined by his parents, and five siblings.   The family settled on 2nd Street, along with many other Jewish immigrants of that period.  He worked in various jobs, including a cigar factory, until he could establish himself as a butcher, as in the old country.  Because we were here for over a hundred years,  I consider myself somewhat of a local historian.

As a boy growing up in Little Lehigh Manor, on the ridge above Lehigh Parkway, I explored the WPA structures when they were still comparatively new.  Because of that background, I was able to uncover the Boat Landing, and advocate for our  traditional park system.  One of my father's uncles worked for the park system, caring for Lehigh Parkway.

What brought me to this post is my great grandmother's tombstone in Fountain Hill, which I recently visited.  She is buried in an old Jewish cemetery that is no longer in use. Although, her tombstone is very old, it replaced an even older one , that then laid behind the former Wentz's tombstone factory at 20th and Hamilton, for many decades.  I am the last Molovinsky in Allentown.

photo taken behind Wentz's before recent demolition of that facility.

reprinted from previous years

Waging War Against Allentown Park Weeds

Today, molovinsky leaves downtown Hamilton Street, and travels twenty blocks west to Cedar Park.  As an advocate for the traditional park system, I have been waging a war against the riparian buffers, which make our  magnificent parks an unsightly mess.  In Allentown, because the storm runoff systems are piped directly into the park streams, these token buffers are just a useless, unsightly insult.  This hot summer, this insult is added to injury, because Cedar Beach Pool is closed. Along the entire length of Cedar Park, there is not one area cleared of high weeds.  You would think that out of a mile of creek side,  we could mow the grass for at least fifty feet,  so that some children might enjoy the stream, as generations have in the past.

photo by molovinsky

above reprinted from July 29 of 2015 

UPDATE JUNE 10, 2021: I haven't made much progress in my park battle against the weed wall. There is now a very small area on either side of the creek by the wooden cross over bridge, just west of the Rose Garden, where a mother with children can access the creek...There should be more such spots.  The park system still struggles to find lifeguards to man our swimming pools.  I still speak out on such issues.

The Arts Walk, Taxpayer's Merry-Go-Round

I find the revitalization of Allentown incredibly unexciting... It's rather unbelievable that there could be a $billion dollars of new construction, but not 10 cents worth of new vibe.

Despite Morning Call article after article, about both new office workers and more apartments, nothing has changed. Walking or driving down Hamilton Street during the week shows little sign of life. On the weekends, there is no sign of life.

By any measure other than J.B. Reilly's real estate portfolio, it is an incredible taxpayer funded failure. The only enthusiasm is from those with a vested interest.

pictured above, some former merchants of the Arts Walk who have come and gone.

Allentown School District Retrospective

One of the most amazing things about Allentown is that the population, despite the problems, has remained about the same since 1928. That was the year Allentown celebrated reaching 100,000. Today, we are about 106.000. Although the numbers stayed the same, the demographics have changed drastically. We are now officially a minority city. When I grew up, there was a saying, If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much. How's that for political correctness? Today, if you want to see a Pennsylvania Dutchman, you have to look at the picture on a bag of pretzels.

During my school years, a delinquent was a kid smoking a cigarette in the alley. Today, we have machete attacks, and parents beating someone else's kid in a classroom. In this environment, should we be concerned about math scores in Singapore? There is a disconnect between the discipline problems and the preoccupation for better scores on the standardized tests; Increasing civility is much more important. If we could get that math score up, will the public overlook the machete attack? We'll build a new school next to Jackson Elementary, move the students, and put the machete attackers in the old Jackson. Then, we'll take the real achievers and put them in an academy of excellence. Let's hope not too many parents insist that their child belongs in the academy. Let's hope that the prison school works out. We all agree that all the students are a precious commodity. What we really need is safe classrooms, conducive to learning. We need supervised streets, conducive for getting to and from school safely. Isn't it interesting that a child can leave Central Catholic at 4th and Chew, and be safer than a child leaving William Allen at 17th and Chew?

The photograph, from the late 1940's, shows a kindergarden class before Lehigh Parkway Elementary School was completed. One of the twin houses served both as the neighborhood school and church.

reprinted from December 2010

UPDATE JUNE 8, 2021: Several years ago the district had a national search for a new superintendent, preoccupied with hiring a minority, who more resembled the students. The gentleman is now moving on to a bigger district and paycheck, and the district is again conducting a national search. If the school board weren't such slow learners they would hire their best administrator from within, regardless of color.

Kids Of The Parkway

There were hundreds of us, we were the baby boomers. The neighborhood was built for returning GI's, and the streets were named after the planes of WW2; Liberator, Catalina, and Coronado. The twin homes were wedged between Jefferson Street and the southern ridge above Lehigh Parkway. Now called Little Lehigh Manor, we knew it simply as Lehigh Parkway, and we had our own school.

Historical Fact:
The original part of the school building contained four classrooms, a teacher's room, and a health room. It replaced the Catalina Avenue School which existed in a home near the present site. Lehigh Parkway received national publicity because it was being build as a result of the new neighborhood. Thus, the "Neighborhood School Concept" was born.








Because of the school and the park, the neighborhood was really self contained. The Lehigh SuperMarket on Lehigh Street was within walking distance. Soon, FoodFair would build their first large Supermarket, also on Lehigh Street, which was even closer. Today it has developed into The Parkway Shopping Center. We kids enjoyed our own Halloween Parade and Easter Egg hunt.






Because there were so many of us, Parkway Elementary only went through 2nd. grade. We would take the bus to Jefferson Elementary for grades 3 through 6.

Historical Fact:
Jefferson Elementary used to be a high school, and for years, it had separate girls' and boys' entrances. These entrances were turned into windows at some point, but the exterior of the building still has the two entrances marked.

These were some of my friends from 3th grade. They all lived in the Parkway. Not only were they all boys, only yesterday, 56 years later, I learned the name of the girl I'm holding hands with in the May Day picture above.

Historical Facts from Allentown School District Website

ADDENDUM: other Parkway Neighborhood Posts,
Time Capsule
Allentown On My Mind

reprinted from previous years

The Paper's Morning Yarn

The Morning Call headlines that the new Strata Loft apartments are all spoken for before the building is even finished.  I have claimed that this is erroneous at the most innocent, and an outright informercial at the more dubious.  I think that after three years of their articles we can dismiss the innocent error option. I have discovered that many of the apartments are both vacant and rented at the same time.  Apparently, City Center LLC has included some apartments with commercial office leases.  A number of the apartments are assigned to the hockey team.

Needless to say if all the apartments were really rented to people living in them,  restaurants wouldn't be closing, and the Moravian Bookstore could have sold a few books.

We find  Rite-Aid coming back, and less pricey eateries going into the closing upscale locations.      Today, someone mentioned to me how she and her husband dine in Bethlehem and Easton, but not Allentown.  They feel Allentown has no charm or ambience.  They certainly would have no desire to walk around in Allentown after their meal.  There was organic growth in Bethlehem and Easton which grew to meet a demand.  In Allentown, a developer keeps building to take advantage of an unprecedented tax incentive.   The Morning Call can act like a public relations firm instead of a newspaper,  but they can't put patrons at restaurant tables or in the upscale stores.

above reprinted from June of 2017

UPDATE JUNE 4, 2021: Four years later,  Reilly continues building more Strata apartments and the paper dutifully continues promoting the myth of full occupancy.  Meanwhile, the streets remain empty and the restaurants fold. Although the NIZ tax benefits were originally supposed to exclude residential, nobody scrutinizes how the new construction is prorated between commercial and residential. 

Farce On Front Street

Back in the day before the FBI raid on Allentown City Hall,  those interested in corruption in Allentown were pretty much limited to myself and O'Hare.  Missing in action was the Morning Call.  Although they would occasionally use this blog as an unattributed source, they avoided my most controversial exposés.  Among them was my revelations about the Neuweiler Brewery.

Although the FBI and  Justice Department decided to prosecute Pawlowski and Company on nine deals,  I suspect that the menu actually had many more choices.  Among them may have been the current Neuweiler Brewery deal.  When Ruckus Brewing was introduced as an applicant for the Neuweiler Brewery, I wrote about it here, way back in 2013.  My research revealed that Ruckus had no experience at the time in either actual beer brewing or real estate.  What they did have was a business consultant very connected to the administration in Allentown, Mike Fleck.

Although Pawlowski and Fleck were indicted and convicted,  the Allentown Commercial Industrial Development Authority proceeded with handing over the brewery to Ruckus.  Ruckus received numerous deadline extensions on their application, and represented the brewery as a done deal to raise cash. All these irregularities were previously reported on this blog, and ignored by the local press. They are currently permitted to rent out space as is, in a building in which the previous owner was arrested and jailed for not correcting code violations.

When shenanigans occur in Allentown,  this blog is often the first source to chronicle the questionable activity.

For the full story on the Neuweiler Brewery, please follow the links provided below. 

Post on Neuweiler Brewery from May 29, 2008

Post on Neuweiler Brewery July 11, 2012

Sequel to July 11, Post (July 16, 2012)

Post on Neuweiler Brewery May 2, 2013

Post on Neuweiler Brewery Jan. 31, 2013

The Neuweiler Brewery, A Pawlowski/Fleck Shenanigan, July 8, 2015

Morning Call Catches Up To Molovinsky On Neuweiler Sept. 30, 2015

above reprinted from August of 2019

ADDENDUM FEBRUARY 27, 2020: The Morning Call reports today that the project has applied for a loan from the NIZ board, and will use the distribution portion for their own offices. The iconic brewery section has been allowed to deteriorate beyond practical salvation. However, being that it is really our tax money being used for private gain, I expect that down the road, we will pay to restore it anyway. Scott Unger, director of the ACIDA states that “Self-occupancy is the highest level of commitment." What that really means is that the boys haven't found a real tenant, but let that slide, like everything else about this project. 

UPDATE JANUARY 13, 2021: A local neighbor reports that clean-out activity has begun from the rear of the property. To him and many others who have invested in the neighborhood, the Neuweiler project is a positive development. I understand their perspective, and my research and reporting was not intended to extinguish their enthusiasm.  I have chronicled some of the back room shenanigans involved in getting the property to this point. I say some, because confidentiality demands that some calls and meetings remain unreported.   

Molovinsky's Nostalgia Train

I suspect that this blog will be spending a lot of time in the near future in the distant past. Frankly, I don't see much news to report on. I'll leave the arena news and Pawlowski's proclamations to The Morning Call. In a few weeks he'll be cutting the ribbon on the 15th Street Bridge, and we'll hear about infrastructure, and what he could do for all of Pennsylvania as governor. In truth, that bridge was on the books since 1985. In truth, they accomplished more work in a week on the high priority arena, as South Allentown dangled for almost three years without the bridge. In the picture above we're back in 1946. Allentown would be serviced by trolleys for another six years. In center city, the main north and south lines were on 6th and 7th Street, as were the stores. Here, the trolley is on 6th, between Turner and Chew Streets. Graf Court, one of Allentown's first apartment houses, shown on the left side, is still there. Out of view, on the upper right side, was the Jewish Community Center, now Alliance Hall.

click on photos to enlarge images

above reprinted from December of 2013

UPDATE JUNE 2, 2021: The Morning Call endorsed Pawlowski in 2005, and actively supported him until his indictment in 2015.  Starting in 2007, this blog alone scrutinized Pawlowski's administration. (Later I was joined by fellow blogger Bernie O'Hare.) The NIZ has replaced Pawlowski in being overlooked by the newspaper's blind eye, but being scrutinized by this blogger.  While the paper recently promoted Reilly's new plans for the former AAA building, they ignored the fact that it is beyond the original designated NIZ District. The NIZ was written in pencil, and modified to allow land swaps of opportunity.  Just as the Morning Call was good to Pawlowski,  Reilly and the NIZ now enjoy the same benefit.

The Fighting Ramos Brothers

On Friday night I caught up with Steven Ramos at a local hotel. Steven was there to support his brother Robert, who was making his fourth showing as a professional fighter. It was a tough fight, with Robert and his opponent battling to a draw. Before the fighters had even exited the ring, the promoter hinted at a rematch. As tough as that fight was, Steven has a tougher one coming up this November. He will battle the winner of the Democratic primary, either Tatiana Tooley or Peter Schweyer, for the new 22nd State House seat. Steven Ramos is a Republican Hispanic running in a Democratic stronghold. If Steven loses, look for rematches down the road, the Ramos brothers are tough.

The Main Event, a photo by molovinsky

reprinted from April of 2014 

UPDATE JUNE 1, 2021: This coming November a third Ramos brother, Tim, battles Matt Tuerk for the mayorship of Allentown. With Tim Ramos being a Republican, although the odds are against him, Allentown will benefit from two worthy opponents recommending how to make the city better.

A Tailor From North Street

The Allentown Housing and Development Corp. recently purchased a home at 421 North St. That block of North Street was destroyed by fire, and the agency has built a block of new houses on the street's south side; it will next develop the other side of the street. The deed transfer caught my attention because Morris Wolf lived in the house in 1903. Wolf signed up with the Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry on July 18, 1861, in Philadelphia, when he was 22 years old. He was a private in Company A, of the 3rd Cavalry. This unit was also known as the 60th Regiment and was later called Young's Kentucky Light Cavalry.It defended Washington, D.C., until March 1862, then participated in many of the war's most famous battles: Williamsburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. Wolf had signed up for three years and was mustered out Aug. 24,1864.

Recently, to commemorate Memorial Day, the local veterans group placed more than 500 flags at Fairview Cemetery. If that wasn't enough of a good deed, the group also set upright more than 300 toppled grave markers. Visiting Fairview recently, I saw they had not overlooked the graves of either Mr. Wolf, or another veteran, Joseph Levine. I have concerned myself with Allentown's Fairview Cemetery for the last few years. I first became interested in the small Jewish section, called Mt. Sinai. This was the first organized Jewish cemetery in Allentown. Currently, all the synagogues have their own cemeteries, and Mt. Sinai has been mostly unused for many decades.

Mr. Wolf lies next to his wife, Julia, who died in 1907. Morris would live on for 30 more years, passing away in 1937, at age 98.
Mr. Levine, a World War II veteran, and his wife, Ethel, were the first and last people to be buried there after almost 25 years of inactivity. When Ethel died at age 93 in 2000, it was the first burial at Mt. Sinai since 1976. Joseph was 103 years old when he passed away in 2006.

The Housing and Development Corp. and North Street are now part of Allentown's new neighborhood initiative called Jordan Heights.Although soon there will be a new house at 421 North St., there is a history that will remain with the parcel. Once a tailor lived there who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg.

reprinted from 2010

108-110 Union Street

When the illustrated map of Allentown shown above was marketed in 1879, 108-110 Union Street were already long standing twin houses. Behind the houses was the western channel of the Lehigh River, which went around Jeter's Island. Years later the island would be called Kline's, and become the city sewage plant. In the mid 1960's, that portion of the river would be filled in and no longer exists. While maps now indicate that the Little Lehigh joins the Lehigh at the southern end of the former island, previously it joined the channel on the western side of the island.

When the map was produced, 108 was owned by William Goetz, and 110 was owned by the Remaley family. Over the years the two sides appear to have been occupied by a number of families,  as both owners and tenants.

In 1921, both houses were purchased by H.H. Steinmetz, a former meat manager for Swift Packing. Steinmetz built a modern 10,000 ft. addition, opening his meat packing plant in 1922. Steinmetz Meat Packing supplied the chain of Economy corner markets with meat and provisions.

In 1941, the packing house was purchased by the Molovinsky family, and renamed Allentown Packing Company. While wholesale operations ceased in 1949, the business continued as a retail meat market until 1970. The plant was demolished several years later to provide parking for A&B Meats. The vacant parcel was then purchased by the neighboring commercial property.

reprinted from April of 2020

Zooming In On Allentown's Past

Today I assigned our aging staff photographer to document the demolition of the 1st National Bank building. He only took two photographs, complaining that there was no water spray to control the dust. For a building supposedly encumbered with asbestos, one would think that the pedestrians of Allentown deserved better treatment, but of course the upscale people have yet to arrive. Regular readers have been hearing about Lehigh Structural Steel on this blog. If you click on and enlarge this closeup, you can clearly see Lehigh Structural Steel Allentown is stenciled on this main beam. Imagine a time when an Allentown centered bank used steel beams made in Allentown for its headquarters in center square. We will be lucky if the beams used in the new building are made in the U.S.A.

UPDATE: A Morning Call video shows water being sprayed during the demolition. The spray person may have been on lunch break yesterday when I visited the site. 

reprinted from October of 2012